Sunday, April 19, 2009

This is a document prepared for use at the furniture program. It was created after a couple months working in the furniture program.

As stated, there were several problems in the program. This document was designed to help facilitate goals and achieve them while bringing some of the problems which existed at that time into the open.

I feel it did this with some success although (allegedly due to budget cuts) I was soon dismissed from my position and replaced by a volunteer college intern.

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FURNITURE AND HOUSING PROGRAM MEETING

Greetings! On Wednesday, November 19, 2008 at 7:00pm there will be a meeting to discuss and clarify goals, procedures, needs and other matters related to the USCRI furniture program. The purpose of the meeting will be to identify and clarify these goals and needs and then develop constructive means in which to work towards achieving them within current parameters.

The meeting is intended to be small and is, essentially, open to either USCRI staff or by invitation to people who have had involvement with the furniture program.

Primary purpose is clarification of goals, needs and realistic procedures to meet these needs and achieve these goals. A written record of the meeting will be kept and provided to

An underlying premise of the meeting is that the USCRI furniture program is intended to help address the material needs of the refugees we serve in an efficient and economical manner, while handling donations in a manner that provides for the refugees served while presenting a positive image of USCRI to the public, including donors, potential donors and businesses and not-for-profits that we work with to achieve our goals. Although the Housing Coordinator is also supposed to handle housing needs, i.e. finding apartments, this has not been done. This will be one of several issues discussed.

INTRODUCTION TO THE HOUSING PROGRAM AND HOUSING COORDINATOR POSITION

The Housing Coordinator is in charge of the following:

1. Processing and receiving donations of material goods. 2. Delivering large quantities of donated goods in usable condition to the refugees. 3. Delivering small quantities of donated goods in usable condition to the refugees.4. Purchasing low-cost furniture when necessary. 5. Finding Housing. 6. Picking and delivering materials for use in the office.

THIS MEETING WILL FOCUS ON IMPROVING THE FIRST TWO AREAS,  Processing and receiving donations of material goods.  Delivering donated goods in usable condition to the refugees.

The third area will resolve itself if systems are put in place to improve the first two areas.

THE LAST TWO ITEMS ARE SIMPLY NOT HAPPENING WITHIN THE CURRENT SYSTEM.  Finding Housing.  Picking and delivering materials for use in the office.

Although there are undoubtedly areas of area #4, purchasing low-cost furniture, that could be improved it is suggested that this area be ignored for the following meeting. The problems that do exist hinge primarily on poor information gathering and processing requiring in a continuous series of emergency decisions that could better be handled in a slower, more systematic manner.

It is hoped that problems will not just be identified, but solutions will also be suggested.

Volumes of goods and people to be served and processed can and should also be discussed throughout the meeting. (There is a very large problem in this area.)

There are, quite frankly, problems from top to bottom that need to be addressed. (USCRI-Albany does not, for instance, have any systematic procedure in place to dispose of bulky trash and therefore it piles up in the storeroom. Nor does it have anyone who is addressing the problem or who will communicate about addressing the problem )

Ways to work within the current system to address these needs will also be discussed.

PROCESSING AND RECEIVING DONATIONS OF MATERIAL GOODS.

This is a multi-step process and it can be seriously improved at each and every step. However, these steps must be coordinated or we will have problems.

I tend to write several entries on a subject and although admittedly they are of variable quality by following the topic keys then one should get a fairly complete view of what I think on the issue. There's a lot of good information buried here particularly on some obscure subjects related to assisting newly arrived refugees, particularly from Burma. These subjects include furniture donation issues, driver education and even domestic violence. If these issues interest you, follow the internal links, do searches, there's a lot here and I've found that often people search on a subject using google, I've written an answer, but the search engines sent them to some other entry where I discussed only a small part of the issue. So if a subject that interests you has a truly mediocre entry there is probably a good one hidden away as well on different aspects of the same subject You can't get a full picture on the issues covered in this blog by reading just one entry. it wasn't written that way. If you still don't see what you want, feel free to drop me an e-mail. Thank you.

About Me

Journalist, educator, and low level Asian history scholar who dabbles in fiction. Peter Huston is the author of several books, including Scams from the Great Beyond, Tong, Gangs, and Triads,, and the novel, Excess Emotional Baggage.
Interests include :
1) Internatinal Education and Teaching English as a Second or other Language,
2)refugee concerns and refugee resettlement,
3)self defense and martial arts,
4) Asian culture and history,
5) censorship controversies
6) the skeptical examination of paranormal and pseudo-scientific claims.
Education includes a master's degree in East Asian Studies from Cornell and a second master's degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from the University at Albany, party of the New York State SUNY system.
I am not the sailing guy, sports betting guy or the attorney guy. These people who use the name Peter Huston are, presumably, impostors. I am the real
Peter Huston.